Dr Alok Tripathi was awarded a Small Study and Research Grant (India) 1993-94, when Assistant Archaeologist at the Archaeological Survey of India, for the study and photo-documentation of ancient ships in Indian art.
Presently Dr Tripathi is now Professor in the Dept of History at Assam University (a Central University), Silchar and the Director of the Centre for Archaeology and Museology. He is a distinguished archaeologist and pioneer underwater archaeologist in India. With his long experience in field archaeology, heritage management, higher education and research he is a renowned authority on history, archaeology and heritage management. He has directed several archaeological excavations in different parts of the country as well as in the Indian Ocean. He founded the Underwater Archaeology Wing in the Archaeological Survey of India. Several underwater archaeological excavations conducted under his direction in the Arabian Sea as well as in the Bay of Bengal earned international recognition. The most experienced underwater archaeologist in the country, he has worked as resource person in UNESCO Asia-Pacific field schools for training underwater archaeologist from several countries. He holds equal authority in museology, art-history, heritage management, art and architecture, remote sensing, and laws. Widely travelled in several countries in Europe, Africa and Asia he is the only social-scientist, listed among the ten brightest young scientists in the country. He is now engaged in critical analysis of policies for heritage management, archaeological researches and understanding of itihasa.
Dr Tripathi wrote about the impact of his NTICVA award.
“There are a good number of ships represented in ancient Indian art, which are valuable evidence, capable of throwing light on ancient Indian shipping and shipbuilding technology. Some of these representations were referred to by scholars here and there, but no complete and systematic study of these ships was carried out. As the first underwater archaeologist of the Archaeological Survey of India I realised the need and decided to document this valuable archaeological evidence and carry out their systematic study to understand ancient shipping and shipbuilding technology in a better perspective. The award helped me to collect firsthand information of great importance for nautical archaeology. The grant provided the opportunity to visit several archaeological monuments and study ancient ships. The knowledge acquired was used and disseminated through a number of research papers presented in national and international seminars and lectures on nautical archaeology and maritime history.”